The Energy Quota

The holiday season has officially arrived. Here in the US, we have just celebrated Thanksgiving which then opens the floodgates to the many celebrations held in December. It's a time where we tend to socialize, eat and drink as well as spend more cash than usual. We arrive at New Years Day wondering what hit us and how did it seem to spin out of control? When the credit card bill arrives mid-January did we go beyond our limits? How about your own personal physical limits?

This leads me to my thought of the week-do you know your energy budget?

I was talking with a friend whose sister has chronic fatigue and has dealt with it for the past decade. She recently adopted a child and was as happy as ever. I asked my friend, "how does she keep up with a young child with her chronic fatigue?". She replied, "she knows how to manage the limited energy that she has".

This is true for all of us whether we're a teen or somebody dealing with an illness. We all have an energy quota. The energy quota is a term I've coined that relates to how much energy expenditure we can handle in a day. But it's a bit tricky as it can shift without us realizing it. We go to work/school, we're busy so we don't really stop for lunch but just grab a bite. We have a project with a deadline so we stay later than the standard time. This results in us grabbing something on the way home that's either take out food or an easy to prepare meal at home. We're already tired so we plop down on the couch or head back to the laptop and as we find ourselves dozing off, we head off to bed.

We've gone into debt with our own energy quota. We missed the signs that our body was asking to stop, slow down or take a break. And, oh yeah, could you put something of high nourishment into the tank in the process?

I've been doing the energy quota dance for as long as I can remember. It simply began with believing that I had an endless supply of energy and that the quota was something that other people had, not people like me who were always told "you have so much energy!". Then it hit me. It didn't just sneak up and if it did, I continued to ignore the sneaking up, but it slammed me with a full on body blow. The type of experience where your body no longer whispers to you to slow down, but begins to scream at you...yelling "I said S L O W D O W N!". As a result instead of boundless energy, I had boundless fatigue. Why was I always so tired? Why didn't coffee in the morning fix it?

It's at moments like these that we get to know our energy quota. We realize that we've overspent and now it's time to pay attention to our budget. For me, this included getting enough sleep by going to bed around the same time every night and not burning the proverbial candle at both ends. It also meant drinking way less alcohol and caffeine. It meant becoming a better vegetarian and committing to practices that serve and support my life rather than constantly testing its boundaries.

My yoga practice has been the perfect antidote for overstepping my energy quota. It has helped me establish ritualized practices where I connect to my higher self and listen to my inner voice. I still tend to throw many balls into the air. I feel life is short and an abundance of opportunities await. And I am still constantly re-defining my quota, particularly as I age.

So...do you know your energy quota? If not, perhaps now is the time to acknowledge that you have one and learn a bit more about it. I figure in the end...we can all find the perfect balance.

The Blame Game

You hear it all the time, "it's so and so's fault...they made me do it...they're the reason we're in the mess" and on it goes. It's a well played out scene with the lamp being broken as kids are playing in the living room and saying, "the dog did it". Lately, my awareness around the need to blame others has been heightened. Perhaps it was the election that sparked this sense that people have a bad case of finger pointing but it wasn't the election by itself as it seems to be happening a lot lately in other realms.

As I was doing an introduction to a yoga class the other day, I was commenting on how we really want to listen to what our bodies are telling us during the practice. If your body senses pain or a reaction of "I don't want to do that" then listen and respond from a place of compassion. We come into our yoga practice to reduce suffering, not to increase it and paying attention to our internal cues is vitally important to that process. Although we go to people for guidance, such as a yoga class or a personal trainer, ultimately it is only you that pushes you.

I have heard countless times how an instructor "had me do this or that" with the storyteller then saying that because of it, they got injured or had incredible soreness for days. I understand and appreciate that students put trust in their teachers. We assume that they are qualified and will provide the safest possible environment. We anticipate that they wouldn't do anything to intentionally injure or damage us and I believe that this is largely true.

But what about the times when you go to a large class that has a ratio of 1:15 or more? How can the instructor know what is completely safe for everyone? What if there's just one person in the class that seems to be lagging behind everyone else, so the instructor caters to the majority? This isn't a new topic from me. We need to be the ones who are responsible for ourselves. Period (or full stop, for my Aussie mates!). We are the ones who ultimately decide what is best for our body as we are the ones who know our bodies best.

What is a new topic is how quickly we lay blame onto something outside of ourselves. At times I just feel like yelling out, "own your own stuff!" and quit assigning blame to avoid doing so. This is a challenging practice as we often have to swallow a big lump of pride and admit that it was our own doing, our own choosing that caused the suffering. Imagine what would happen if people took responsibility for their own choices more often. If they simply acknowledged that they made a poor choice, it taught them a lesson and as a result, they have become wiser for future situations.

The blame continuum can stretch from people who complain about seemingly everyone and everything, to those who simply don't want to own up to something. It all catches up with us eventually. Satya, or truthfulness is one of the Niyamas in the eight-faceted path of the yoga sutras. At the close of each class, I end with "May we always know our truth. May we always speak our truth. And may we always live our truth". Perhaps sitting with this idea every day will give us an opportunity to control what we can and let go of the rest...without playing the blame game.

Own it.

The Zone

If you ask most people, I think they would say they would prefer to be comfortable rather than uncomfortable. Whether it relates to what you're wearing on a particular day, being in a social setting, at work or in the body, we seek to feel at ease.

I find myself frequently asking yoga students to find a place of ease in a pose, to let go of struggling or to find ease in their breath. When we are trying something that is unfamiliar, it can make us uncomfortable and as a result we tense our muscles and hold our breath. Finding ease in a place that's challenging offers us an opportunity to move out of our comfort zone in a more comfortable way.

So why do we need to move out of our comfort zone? And do you really know what your zone is? We each have a way of being in the world and it's as individual as our fingerprint. Aren't we constantly doing this dance between trying new things but not to the point that we feel we'll fail or look bad?

One of my favorite sayings from Judith Hanson Lasater is, "does this feel painful/uncomfortable or just unfamiliar?" I love this because it offers a subtle distinction between what we know and what we don't. When we explore an unfamiliar feeling or experience, it opens up a doorway to a new sensation, expanding our zone of what we know and can do.

My zone has been challenged throughout this year from the moment I was deciding whether or not to do the Global Seva Challenge through Off the Mat, Into the World. The aim was to raise awareness around the issue of sex trafficking in India and worldwide and, in the process, to raise money to support programs and partners already in place in India that are rescuing girls from the trade. Any participant who raises $20,000 can go on the Bare Witness Tour to India to see what the organization has been supporting.

One of my initial responses was that if I was going to do the challenge, then I really wanted to raise the $20K. But how? I haven't been a fundraiser since selling chocolate bars door to door for my Bobby Sox softball league when I was nine. What did I know about raising that much money. And what was even more challenging is that I would have to find a voice to ask people for support...in a multitude of ways. I recognized that if I were to undertake the challenge that I couldn't do it by myself and that meant stepping out of one of my major comfort zones of asking for help. I have always been fiercely independent with the defiant two year old persona of "I can do it myself", so to say to someone "can you give me a hand" was likely to get stuck in my throat.

But the most amazing thing happened.

When I recognized that the only thing holding me back was asking for help and finding the words, I realized I was willing to take a chance. So I took a deep breath, honored the sick feeling in my stomach and asked anyway. My fear almost got in the way of not doing it. My fear of being told "no". My fear of trying to reach the goal and failing. My fear of trying something that I had no idea how to do. But something deeper within bubbled up and recognized my own suffering was easily overcome in order to do something significant for someone else whose suffering was unthinkable.

And although people did say "no" and didn't offer support, more people did. So many people in fact turned up and said "yes-how can I help?" that not only have I reached the goal, I've surpassed it. In the process I have changed. My zone has expanded, my skill set has grown, my confidence as a leader has been altered forever and I have this almost inexplicable feeling of love and joy at the idea of community coming together.

It's because I took a risk and stepped out of my comfort zone. I could have shirked away and said "that's too hard", but I didn't. This is why we step out of what makes us comfortable...so we can redefine our own zone. So we can be more at ease in the face of challenge.

Please take a deep breath into that scary space within, see what arises and take a chance...it might just knock your socks off!

It's Just Diet and Exercise, Right?

We have had it drummed into our heads that if we eat "right" and move our bodies on a consistent basis then we'll live a long and healthy life. Our culture gives an incredible amount of energy into these two facets of how we can choose to live.

But is that enough?

Apparently not, according to researchers who've studied groups of people who live well and actively into their 90's and 100's. They found pockets of people around the world who as a collective outlive all others, en masse. They termed these groups Blue Zones with author Dan Buettner writing the book "The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from people who lived the longest." Basically it's a concept used to identify a demographic and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives.

These communities were found in:

• Sardinia, Italy
• The islands of Okinawa, Japan
• Loma Linda, California
• Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
• Icaria, Greece

What they all had in common

• Just move - Active lifestyles, more than heavy exercise, is what leads most to longevity.
• Purposeful outlook - Have clarity about your role in life.
• Down shift on stress - Blue zone cultures all have their own ways of shedding stress in life.
• Eat to 80% full - Stop your meals when you are 80% full rather than totally full.
• Plant slant - Meat is more of a condiment than a staple in most Blue Zones.
• Wine @ 5 - Moderate drinking has positive benefits.
• Belong to a community - Belonging to a faith-based community extends one's life in general.
• Loved ones first - Focusing on family in life and keeping family members close to home will improve one's life.
• Right Tribe - Having a social circle that promotes healthy lifestyles is important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle yourself.

With that being said, these blue zones have many qualities that are taught via living a yogic lifestyle. So although movement and food choice are important other elements of our daily life play a role that is as vital.

The areas that yoga fully addresses are: purpose, managing stress, community, love and having a social tribe. We can deepen our exploration of purpose through studying the purusharthas (the purpose of our soul). We can learn how to better manage the challenges in our life through breath and meditation. We have a strong sense of community and tribe via satsang (spiritual community) and sangha (social gathering). And we do it all from the perspective of Ahimsa (the act of compassion for self, others and Mother Earth) the first Yama mentioned in the yoga sutras.

Simply by stepping onto a yoga mat you begin to address so much more than diet and exercise. Our entire being, our connection to others and the planet begins to deepen. I hope that whatever path you follow, you consider the richness of life that is available to all by looking beyond what you already know. In fact, I have a mini blue zone right here in the desert...a group of clients who are nonagenarians and have many of these qualities as they are living lives that are engaged and purposeful. I am blessed to bear witness to this mini blue zine and hope to see it keep expanding!